Field Hockey Announces 2014 Schedule

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard field hockey team has released its schedule for the 2014 season, which features 17 games for the Crimson, nine of which will be at Jordan Field.

Led by third-year head coach Tjerk van Herwaarden, who will serve as an assistant coach with Team USA at the World Cup later this month, Harvard will play its usual seven-game Ivy slate, as well as 10 non-conference games in 2014. The schedule also sets the Crimson against three NCAA tournament teams from 2013, including New Hampshire, Boston College and 2012 NCAA champion Princeton.

The season begins at home on Sept. 5 when the Crimson host Bryant before turning around for a visit from Holy Cross on Sept. 7. After a trip to Burlington, Vt., for the Catamount Classic Tournament featuring bouts with Maine and Vermont on the 13th and 14th, Harvard returns to Cambridge to kick off the Ivy season with rival Yale on Sept. 20.

Four days later, crosstown foe Northeastern will come to Jordan Field for a midweek matchup at 6 p.m. On Sept. 27, the Crimson travel to Penn, before hosting UMass Lowell on Sept. 30 to get to the midway point of the season. From there, Harvard embarks on a three-game road swing to kick off the month of October with trips to Brown, Boston University and Fairfield. The Crimson's first home game in October is on the 18th when Cornell comes to town, a day before New Hampshire does the same.

A date with Princeton in New Jersey on Oct. 25, followed by a visit from Boston College on Oct 28, precedes the last two weeks of the year. After heading north to Hanover, N.H., for its last road contest at Dartmouth on Nov. 1, the Crimson return home to close out the regular season on Nov. 8 with Columbia. The NCAA Tournament, which is held this year on the campus of the University of Maryland, will take place on Nov. 21-23 to decide this year's best.

The Crimson's roster features five newcomers and several key returners, including All-Ivy League choice Marissa Balleza, who was last year's leading goal-scorer.